Elvis Presley married just once to Priscilla Presley from 1967 to 1973, the mother of his only child, Lisa Marie.
After splitting in 1972, the couple ended up having quite an amicable divorce, which was finalised a year later.
In fact, the King even sang a hit love song to Priscilla as they left their divorce courtroom.
It turns out the song Elvis sang to his soon-to-be ex-wife was I Will Always Love You, Dolly Parton’s hit song.
The lyrics seem quite fitting in their situation of a couple breaking up with a commitment to continuing loving each other.
They open: “If I should stay/I would only be in your way/And so I’ll go, but I know/I’ll think of you each step of the way. And I will always love you/I will always love you.”
Writing previously in The Big Issue’s Letter To My Younger Self, Dolly herself said: “Priscilla told me later that he sang that song to her when they were coming down the steps of the courthouse after they divorced. That really touched me.”
Being particularly touched by this moment goes back to when the Country singer turned down Elvis wanting to sing I Will Always Love You years before; a song The King never recorded.
Dolly shared how Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker had quite the demand for the track.
Speaking previously on Living and Learning with Reba McEntire, Dolly said: “It didn’t have anything to do with Elvis. I loved Elvis. It was Colonel Tom Parker, his manager, who was brilliant. You can’t take that way from people. He did all right by him.”
However, the country star was reluctant to give away her own song like that. She said: “But, I already had a No. 1 song, I Will Always Love You. That was the most important copyright I had in my publishing company. So I was so excited, I told everybody. They had called me that Elvis was recording it, and if I wanted to come to the studio. Elvis wanted to meet me and all that.”
That evening, before the session, Colonel Tom Parker called her up. Elvis’ manager said to Dolly: “You know, we don’t record anything with Elvis unless we have the publishing, or at least half the publishing.”
Dolly replied: “Well, that throws a new light on this because I can’t give you half the publishing. I’m gonna leave that to my family. I can’t do that.” So The Colonel told her that Elvis couldn’t cover the track as those were the terms.
She admitted: “I cried all night. Oh, I just pictured Elvis, like, singing it. And I know that Elvis loved it. And I know it wasn’t him, but it’s true. I said no.”
Nevertheless, it turned out to be a good choice as she says she made enough money that she could have bought Graceland from Houston’s cover, which went on to be one of the best-selling singles of all time.